The abolition of mobile roaming charges, originally scheduled for the end of 2015, has been delayed until 2018 at the earliest.
The often controversial charges vary greatly among providers, but users regularly lodge complaints about extortionate charges when making calls within the 28-nation European Union.
In attempt to palliate the situation, EU countries reduced the charges, and the European Parliament actually approved last year a “roam-like-at-home” package, which would have put an end to roaming charges altogether by this year’s end.
However, the European Council, a body that which groups the member state governments, issued a ruling yesterday to send that package back to the Parliament, stating that a new interim pricing mechanism should bring about lower costs.
The ruling said “within certain limits to be determined, consumers could make and receive calls, send SMSs and use data services without paying anything extra on top of the domestic fee.”
“Once this basic roaming allowance is used up, the operator may charge a fee but this fee will be much lower than current charges,”
“As the next step, the (European) Commission will be asked to assess by mid-2018 what further measures may be needed with a view to phasing out roaming charges.”